1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a system and method for storing broadcast data on a vehicle that will be played from the vehicles memory during future broadcasts of the same data and, more particularly, to a system and method for storing satellite radio music broadcasts on a vehicle so that the vehicle can play a song intended to be broadcast from the satellite so as to conserve satellite bit-rate, sometimes referred to as digital bandwidth, and possibly use it for other purposes.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Satellite radio is becoming increasingly more popular. Modern vehicles are typically equipped with satellite radios, and offer incentives for a subscription to the satellite broadcasts for some period of time. As is well understood in the art, satellite broadcasts allow the vehicle to continuously receive the broadcasts for a satellite channel as the vehicle moves over a large range, which typically is not possible for terrestrial radio. Satellite radio offers a number of formats, including many types of music broadcasts, talk radio, sports, traffic, weather, etc. Music broadcasts are typically determined by some programming schedule where certain songs may be played very regularly, intermittently, etc. The digital bandwidth used by satellite radio is very limited and thus it is desirable to conserve as much digital bandwidth as possible for these transmissions.
Modern vehicles also typically include a number of systems that need to be continually updated in order for them to be effective. For example, vehicles that include navigation systems where the vehicle operator will enter a destination and the navigation system will program a route from the vehicle's location to that destination require map databases that store the roads and their names that can be displayed to provide the navigation capability. Because road systems are constantly changing, the map databases need to be continuously updated to be effective, which can be provided by satellite transmissions. Other applications that need to be updated include road closure information, weather and traffic transmissions, entertainment systems, etc.